Normally, my family and I would be going to brunch on Easter Sunday. We were so excited to go so Jr. Mintz can meet the Easter Bunny! Nope, not this year. And we probably won’t be having brunch out on Mother’s Day either. So what have I been doing? I really didn’t feel like cooking, so we ordered in (the original plan was to have me make the “Cynthia Special,” – steamed eggs with quark and dried herbs – with toast). Not too many places were open today, not only because many restaurants are temporarily closed due to COVID19 (our favourite brunch place, Wish, decided to close a few days ago, after doing curbsite pickup and delivery for a couple of weeks), but because many are giving their staff a day off.
The Starving Artist (Danforth) is a waffle restaurant. I was craving for something sweet, but I can’t JUST have a sweet meal anymore. We ordered one “Starving 4 Waffles” (waffles topped with fruit and other toppings (you got to pick – strawberries, bananas, blackberries and Nutella for us) which came with a salad and a choice of sides as well as cheese and chive waffles (came with a side of sour cream (yuck) and salsa). We also shared a side of avocadoes and one poached egg each. We ordered coffee, but it had already cooled down to a temperature that just didn’t work. I suppose we could have just stuck it in the microwave. We both only had half of ours and made more later.
After brunch, I watched the Andrea Bocelli Live performance on YouTube. It was only half an hour, but it was perfect for Easter Sunday. He ended the performance with Amazing Grace and they showed shots of London, Paris and New York City. It’s so eerie to see the cities so….empty. You never think of Times Square, for example, to look dead (the last time it was that was probably right after 9/11). I really wish this would just end. I hate being inside most of the time (I go out once a week to replenish groceries. I’ve otherwise mostly been ordering online. I’m really lucky to have gotten into Fresh City Farms back in January or so because there’s now a wait list to get on! I’m basically guaranteed fresh produce every week. Even if there isn’t much of it).
It DOES get stressful, though. As we just moved, I still don’t exactly know where everything is! And Jr. Mintz is going through a phase…sort of a preview to the so-called Terrible Twos. He seems to have calmed a bit over the past few days.
Passover was just another day for us this year. The Seder we normally attend was cancelled and we didn’t schedule a virtual one. I DID buy matzoh and ordered matzoh ball soup from the Toronto Soup Company. It was pretty good and I think I’ll be ordering other soups from them soon. We really need to support local, independent businesses. They’re at the most risk of closing down permanently. And many restaurants started out delivering or offering take-out, but are now temporarily closed (including a favourite of ours).
That’s pretty much what’s been going on. I had a meeting with my podcast co-hosts recently to discuss upcoming episodes. I’m pleased to announce that we now have a YouTube channel as many of our future programming will also include video. Even our audio is uploaded there – we just replace video content with a photo of us! Hope you can take a listen/watch (as of this post, only episode two is up).
